Daughter Who
by Kuzcopia
Summary: Doctor Who is wrapped up in one of the most wobbliest challenges he has ever had to face, trying to beat a foe who's already beaten his future self in...in the past? So he decides to enlist the assistance of a past version of that very same woman...so he can once again save countless worlds from their demise. Something like that, it's sort of confusing. Much like time travel.
1. Chapter 1 - The memory that wouldn't die

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to Doctor Who.**_

 _ **Annabella ©2011-2016 MamaBunyip**_

 _ **Everything else and story line by me but of course they're set in the Dr. Who Universe so I still hold no rights to them.**_

 _ **Story takes place somewhere in the 11th Doctor Era. I hope you enjoy it!**_

 _ **Rating: It's perfectly safe for the whole family, like the show. So don't worry.**_

* * *

 **PART 1:** The Memory that wouldn't die.

The world was green.

Her shy ten-year-old eyes blinked.

It then twisted and morphed, the sun turned red and then blue. The air became heavy and she was surrounded by weird machinery in the form of floors and ceiling and walls as far as the horizon could reach, all pulsing with a purplish tint to a darkness black as a moonless night.

Her sleepy head then thought the sun was just a big lightbulb in the ceiling, a far away ceiling, as far away as the clouds usually were. It was cold, she still wore her pink pajamas and for some reason didn't have her red-panda slippers, the floor felt metallic and hard under her tiny feet.

And then a growl made her blink again. She looked aside to find, at a yet considerable distance, a monstrous being. It was approaching her at a fast pace, however, but her wavering heart caught in the throat with such fright she couldn't even scream. Let alone run.

Every alarm system her organism could muster immediately went haywire. It shook her fully awake and to the realization, the certain factual realization, that she wasn't dreaming. And then fear gripped her tighter.

The monster was big: twice the size of her father, both in height and width. It had a broad chest which shrunk into a smaller hip, as wide as her fathers', which divided itself into two legs that in turn divided into three blades each, its claws, which violently pierced the ground as it walked. The arms also stretched out to four-bladed claws, only these weren't as sharp, and had something that could be perceived as the inside of a hand connected to them.

Now to its credit, Its head was round, but then its eyes were pitch black sockets, with white spheres traveling across them, both now facing her. Its skin looked metallic hard, and was also blackened, but the eye slits were still so dark they contrasted enough to be clearly discernible.

Its arms wobbled back and forth as it stomped its paces.

It was the stuff of nightmares. She was unsure as to how she hadn't soiled herself in urine at the sight of it. She figured she was still too shocked to do even that, but apparently not too shocked to identify a marauding monster when she saw one. Her next course of action was obvious.

Alas, her legs were not the least bit cooperative with her, curious instead to see what would happen when the monster reached her. So she punched one of them, to teach it who's boss.

When she looked back, the monster was holding his arms in front, as if balancing for a leap. Throwing them backward, his legs catapulted the thing into gliding very rapidly through the air, in her direction.

Her eyes opened wide in surprise, her tiny voice managing a squeak, but she was interrupted in her attempt to panic by a hard push.

The world fell for a second, at the sound of a very loud crash. It soon came back to her as hands released her – it hadn't been a push, it had been a grab - and whatever had tackled her stood up.

She gazed at a man, covered by a light brown overcoat. He had messy light brown hair and was pointing a weird silvery gadget at the beast. It looked like a flashlight, or a really big…flashy pen.

"Not today!"

The gadget whistled and the monster shivered for a second before letting out electricity and smoke, like it had short-circuited. The monster fell on his face, unable to balance itself, and the man turned to Annabella. He leaned into her eye-level with a mix of concern and excitement.

She immediately noticed the dark tortoise-shell rectangular frame glasses on his face, a few strings of his fringe lightly rocking in front of the lenses. He had brown eyes and smiled at her in a way it made all her worries and fears immediately vanish.

"Are you ok?"

"I…yes." She could fell everything relaxing. There was a man there now, a grown-up like her father, everything would be okay.

"Doctor!"

The Doctor looked back and she leaned her head as she stood up, to see a man marching towards the doctor. His clothes were…she didn't remember, but they were dark, and the way he stood, with a sense of self-empowerment, he reminded her of a police officer. Even if he wasn't in uniform.

"More of them are coming, we need to go."

"We need to stop them, is what we-"

The Doctor was interrupted by the man who, passing by the monster, put some kind of gun next to its head and, with a second of hesitation, pulled the trigger.

Nothing happened, however. No bullet and no reaction.

"Now what did you do **that** for?!" The Doctor asked, annoyed, and a second later, a tiny explosion sounded out as the surface the man had pointed the gun at imploded. The back of the monster's head blew open, spilling wires, parts, and some kind of black liquid emitting a purple hue.

"We just blew our element of surprise."

"So you **kill** him? He was no threat!"

"'Course he was, you shorted him out, he was going to get back up."

"Not in time to do anything worthwhile."

"What does it matter?!" Jack asked, annoyed, "we have to regroup, try again later."

The Doctor sighed.

"Always with the military vernacular, Captain Harkness…" he used the title in a bit of a mockery, "have you learned nothing?"

"You wanted to save the girl, she's right there. Grab it and let's go."

" **It**?" The Doctor rose his voice annoyed.

"she, grab **her,** damn it, the package, retrieve…" The Doctor was looking at him suggestively.

"Ju-just shut up. Let's go before **they** get here." Jack pointed to the side, notably apprehensive. She looked and saw the horizon that was, for a lack of a better description, filled with monsters. They seemed to be floating in their general direction.

"Well, can't very well argue with that." The Doctor then crouched to look at her. "What's your name?"

"Annabella," she timidly spelled out.

He opened his eyes in surprise, a kind of recognition he didn't expect to experience, and then smiled comfortably.

"Alright, well, we're here to help you. If you'll come with me, I'll take you back home. Would you like that?"

She nodded and grabbed his hand once he offered it to her. Apprehensively but trusting, she put her tiny steps to follow him.

The army was approaching, she could hear the faint sounds of them crashing their claws on the ground as they made their way to them. He, meanwhile, was taking her to a police box. It looked old, and so out of place in that huge new world with the light blue sun and made of miles and miles of black silver metal and circuitry. Especially because it was so blue.

However, his hand was warm, and his care was free. He did not seem overly worried about anything.

When she entered the box, a whole new world opened to her.

The mean looking man impatiently motioned the Doctor along, closing the door behind them with a swift swing.

"So impatient," the Doctor 'tsked,' mildly amused as he approached a big circular panel, full of levers, buttons, and other techy things she didn't recognize. He turned to her to relax her worries:

"Alright, I'm just going to tell my ship to take you home now, ok?"

She nodded, her eyes big and wide with wonder.

"I need my hand, sweety," he jested and she embarrassingly let it go, instead taking her hand to her lips. She nibbled on her fist a bit in a nervous reaction. It really wasn't a dream, it all felt very real.

"Alright, and here…we…go!"

The ship rumbled, glowed, and she felt herself being pulled into something, being somewhat twisted, but it didn't hurt and it vanished as soon as she felt it.

The Doctor grabbed her hand again, pulling her focus.

"Come, I want to show you something."

They left the mean man behind and headed for some stairs.

They crossed a corridor, turned a left at some piece of machinery that was fuming, apparently having a bad time, and walked across another. Suddenly he turned her around and her mind was blown.

A window, roughly the size of her bedroom, opened her eyes to the universe. Things she had seen in crayon drawings, but real, and up close. She was so young she couldn't think or process it, she could only stare… completely and utterly in awe.

An enormous vessel stood in the midst of space with a smoldering black planet, and the sun as its background, a green sun, huge and flaming. Streams of colors then rushed at her, the whole space in front of her bending upon itself until it was just a line on the horizon.

"And here we go."

The rest she could never put into words. She had drawings of smudges and blurs made out of as many colors as she could get, but nothing did her memory any justice.

Even on that day, 22 years old, 12 years later, she looked at the pile of drawings she had made across the years with tired eyes but a never-ceasing yearning heart.

"It was real, wasn't it?"

She didn't remember anything after the light.

She didn't remember getting back, or being dropped off; she just woke up on her bed like nothing had happened. And decades of normal life had…what decades? Mere days had shaken her faith in her memory, in her experience, and decades later she only had year-old ugly drawings to remember it all by.

Of the monster, of the light show, of the mean man in black and of the Doctor… all the drawings she had of him, he was always smiling. On some, she had been carried under his arm, others by hand, others in both arms like a bride.

Her hair still glowed orange, though now long enough to envelop her shoulders. Her skin had lost its freckles and gained a snowy tint. Her eyes blue, her lips pink, herself matured into a healthy, tall, and slim woman's body with all the curves in its places, all a helpful plus in her waitressing job in Dundee.

She felt ridiculous, saving all these drawings, looking over them once every couple of months, before throwing them around in frustration and deciding to throw them in the garbage.

But she never did. She always put them back in the box, and the box under her bed. And that's what she was doing then.

Her one-bedroom flat looked small. Everything looked so small ever since she had seen the inside of that police box, and what was outside of it. After that, how could she have an interest in anything that could be confined to a house, or to a bank, or to her belly?

She was thinking how silly she was, and how she was letting a stupid little dream ruin most of her youth, and how if she didn't stop it, it would ruin the rest of her life. She would die a waitress without ever accomplishing anything, or opening up to anyone.

She sighed.

And as she sighed, a knock came at the door. She raised an eyebrow as the second knock sounded out.

 _Who could that be? I don't know anyone around here._

"Who is that?" She asked out loud, casually approaching the door.

"Annabella?" A seemingly English accent sounded out, male and ripe and, more importantly, unrecognized.

"Yes?"

"It's me, the Doctor," it said, with a playful tone.

Before she gave the claim any reasonable consideration, she was already unlocking the door and flinging it open. But the man that was expecting her was very different. His hair was brown, his overcoat was beige, was that a difference? His fringe was, it was much more evident, his eyes much clearer, his face considerably more square and, actually, different. She was definitely certain he hadn't seen him wearing a silly red bow tie, but an actual tie.

She frowned confused and suddenly very aware she had opened the door to a complete stranger. Still, her curiosity remained, why would he announce himself as "the Doctor?"

"Doctor Who?" She asked, confused.

The man smiled mischievously, notably holding back a giggle.

Wouldn't **you** like to know?

* * *

 ** _Part End: Thank you for reading, please consider leaving a review if you have the time._**

 _Alright so this had more of the 10th, but I promise I meant it when I said 11th! Next up, we actually start with the whole thing, after all, a spooky alien race doesn't just kidnap a little girl for no reason! Reasons are abound, read on to discover them._

 _Also don't worry, the story is fully written. Next update will come up next week, God willing._


	2. Chapter 2 - I need you

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to Doctor Who.**_

 _ **Annabella ©2011-2016 MamaBunyip**_

 _ **Everything else and story line by me but of course they're set in the Dr. Who Universe so I still hold no rights to them.**_

 _ **Story takes place somewhere in the 11th Doctor Era. I hope you enjoy it!**_

 _ **Rating: It's perfectly safe for the whole family, like the show. So don't worry.**_

* * *

 **PART 2:** I need you

"Excuse me," Annabella voiced out, awkwardly, as the Doctor strolled into her apartment.

"Well isn't this such a cozy place. Bit small, however, no?" She lightly closed the door and awkwardly followed him.

"Excuse me?!"

It was instantly noticeable that he suffered from some form of acute hyperactive affliction. He shifted his eyes across her home, scanning everything as if he was unable to focus on any one thing. His head jerked from one side to the other like that of a curious boggled-eyed child. She followed him around.

"Excuse me; I didn't say you could come in."

"You never said I couldn't, either," he looked at her for a brief moment, adding to the statement a sly smile, then he jerked around again, this time in the direction of her bed. "Uuh, what is **that**?"

In a quick stroll, he approached her bed and reached under it, making her notice how her box had remained a little visible.

 **"Hey!"** She yelled out, now mad at this stranger, though enigmatically also curious about what he was doing. He opened the box. "That's private!"

"Nooo, it's a box," he jested, opening it, "with drawings! Awww…look at it, it's so cute."

Heavily blushing, but afraid to exercise any aggressive force, she stepped back and leaned protectively and harmlessly against a counter.

He flipped through all of them, stopping on one with opened eyes.

"Oh look!" He flipped the drawing of her savior at her, lighting up his face all proud while pointing at it, "it's me!"

"N-no it's not," she stated, half-frightened.

"Well yes," he granted her, waving the drawing around, talking to the air, "not exactly me, not **physically** me, but definitely me! I'm the doctor, he's the doctor, he's me and I'm him," he said before looking back at her, "do you follow?"

"Uh…what?"

"I'm the Doctor," he approached her, looking deeply into her eyes while still retaining his anxious smile, "and I need your help, Annabella Christie."

She lost her breath that moment, for a second or two. She couldn't even think straight.

"What?"

"With these," he turned another drawing at her, of the monster, "The Bleaks. Very dangerous race. They tried their campaign before but I stopped them. For good, I thought, but no." His smile closed and he frowned gravely at her, suggestively implying as to the importance of the words he was saying. "Not for good. They're back, Annabella, and they're in full force now, and they are threatening the safety of entire galaxies and I need **your** help to defeat them. Well, in a way it results in fewer deaths, together we can save more lives, I need you to save lives, I…need - your help."

He grabbed her hand and pulled himself close enough so his eyes filled hers.

"Will you help me…Annabella Christie?"

"I…" her head was racing rampant and confused but his eyes, even though different, held a familiarity. She saw something in them, a 'goodness' she couldn't exactly pinpoint in a rational sense.

She had never really been that rational.

Hesitantly, but gravely, accidentally sounding as if her life depended on it, she asked "are you…really him? The one who saved me from those things?"

"The Bleaks," he reminded her, smiling again glad.

"Yes, those."

"Yes," he pulled away, closing his arms on both her shoulders, "Trust me, help me."

"I..." her heart raced and her mind wandered lost amid so many thoughts she couldn't even keep up with them. So she followed her heart, her silly child-like adventurous heart. She accidentally cracked a smile, saying "yes."

She lightly shook her head in disbelief, and the Doctor bent back to get a better look at her, excited and proud. And that definitely strengthened her resolve, "Yes."

"Ha ha!" He stood up, "that's grand! Alright, follow me into the Tardis!"

"The Tardis?"

He skipped quickly out of her room.

"Wait, can't I change?"

He popped his head back in.

"You can change in the Tardis, don't worry. Come along, Annabella, no time to waste!" And popped back out. She still grabbed a coat off her hanger and threw it on as she followed him.

But at the exit, he popped a head back in again.

"Are you—ah, good, yes, let's go!"

She almost couldn't stop herself from giggling. She felt so alive as she scurried off after The Doctor, wondering what she was going to see. She was still a bit worried, but it further diminished once she walked into the street and saw the blue police box. She blinked, but it was still there. Then she massaged her eyes and not only was it still there but the Doctor was looking back at her, visibly enjoying her look of disbelief.

"This is really happening, isn't it? It wasn't a dream, it was real, and I'm—"

"Going to travel through space," he interrupted her, hopping to her side. He put an arm around her shoulders, and led her gaze past the stars with the other arm, "across time and worlds. To see amazing new things and, most of all, to help me save entire civilizations. Yes?"

She glared at him, feeling so warm the cold of the night went by unnoticed. She nodded, "yes!"

He laughed, and pushed her along with him, opening the door to the police box. He waved her in, and she went in.

The familiarity of it all came back to her, though again, it was slightly different than what she remembered. She heard the door close behind her, and that gave her a sense of déjà vu.

"What happened to your friend?" She asked, remembering the soldier man.

"Which of them? I have a number of friends," his tone gave no attempt to hide how positively happy he was to say so.

"The one in black? Looked like a soldier? You called him…Jack?"

"Oh, him. Yes, well, I guess he's on out there somewhere, saving some world or another, being all heroic and the like."

He again skipped his paces until he reached the center of what she assumed to be the control room. There, he started pushing buttons, pulling levers, always looking around and dancing around with a notorious curiosity. It almost seemed like he was just playing around with a toy for the first time.

"Really? I thought **you** were the hero," she teased him.

"No… I'm the Doctor," he smiled. He then winked and added, "Geronimo!"

She felt space being displaced, and then they were off.

She looked around, curiously, while approaching him.

"Where are we going?"

"Oh, more like when," he told her, excited, "three thousand years into the future."

"Three thousand?!"

"Yes well, that's how much of a **thrashing** me and Jack gave them," the Doctor said, waving his fist jokingly, "took them a while to get back on their feet, but alas, so they did."

"But why do you need **me**?"

"Why? Didn't I **tell** you?" He looked up in thought.

"No…"

"I told you, didn't I? Because it's those monsters you faced before." He looked back at her, smiling as though to give her confidence on the fact that it wasn't a big deal, "you have insight I need."

"What do you mean? I don't even know what they are."

"The Bleaks are a race of tiny little aliens who ride big armored…armors, like the one you saw."

"The monster was a machine?"

"Yes. Kind of, it was piloted, you see? Like a car…but with legs and arms, and with sharp pointy claws and the muscle strength of a starship and, most importantly, a conscience. Biotechnology, you see? It's a machine that thinks and feels and communes with the pilot through a bond that's stronger than blood, a psychic bond."

"Okay…that's very informative," she was losing her confidence fast, "I still don't see how my insight would be useful."

"Well—" he was interrupted by the Tardis, its impoliteness to shart shaking and rumbling at inoportune times was legendary. He leapt to look at a screen and then pulled back a sleeve to look at a wrist-watch.

"Oh my, we're here. And right on time too! Come along, we have to go." He ran to the door of the Tardis, leaping to it.

"What? But…you haven't explained anything," she complained

"No time now. Just come along, Annabella," he waved her onwards, opening the door of the Tardis, and she could see a metallic floor beyond…like the one she remembered from her dreams. From her memories, they were her memories.

Fear gripped her. "But-"

"Anna…" He called out, endearingly, "I'm sorry, truly, but there's no time. Please, do what I say and I promise everything will turn out alright," he told her, looking into her eyes.

Then he smirked, waving his hand to gesture to himself.

"You can trust me, I'm the Doctor. **"**

* * *

 ** _Part End: Thank you for reading, please consider leaving a review if you have the time._**

 _11th! Man he's so fun to write. Next up, special guest appearance by Amy Pond and her centurion!_

 _Also don't worry, the story is fully written. Next update will come up next week, God willing._


	3. Chapter 3 - An Awkward Development

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to Doctor Who.**_

 _ **Annabella ©2011-2016 MamaBunyip**_

 _ **Everything else and story line by me but of course they're set in the Dr. Who Universe so I still hold no rights to them.**_

 _ **Story takes place somewhere in the 11th Doctor Era. I hope you enjoy it!**_

 _ **Rating: It's perfectly safe for the whole family, like the show. So don't worry.**_

* * *

 **PART 3: An awkward development**

She didn't step into a whole world, like she remembered, but rather a room. The doctor opened a door by waving his gizmo at it. He then put his head out and looked to both sides.

"Brilliant. Seems we're clear, come along."

They stepped into a corridor. Even though it wasn't as wide as the world she remembered waking up in as a child, it was definitely made of the same stuff. It pulsed with that purplish hue, and was as if technologically alive, the hue glowing and dimming like it was breathing. It was large, though; wide enough to fit a tank, tall enough to fit two people.

The doctor kept his gizmo at hand, pointing it as if it was a flashlight, only it glowed green at the walls as he quickly marched on, followed closely by Annabella.

She finally struck up the courage to point at the gizmo.

"What's that?" She asked, "where are we?" So many questions.

"Sonic screwdriver. And we're in the prison ward of their mothership."

"Sonic screwdriver? What does it do?"

"Oh, mostly everything," the Doctor replied, proud of his toy, stopping as the corridor opened to two others. He thought for a second before pointing to the right, "this way!"

She followed him, curiously looking around. The feeling of adventure had her heart racing as every glance could bring something utterly new, and though it felt amazing and empowering, it left her brain little time to process information.

"Why are we in the prison ward?"

"Just…helping some friends that were captured," he said, thinking of something else before suddenly stopping, next to a large gate. "Come," he requested, motioning her on with one hand while waving his sonic screwdriver at it.

Annabella approached, "tell that panel there to open the door, please." He requested, now focused on her.

She looked and saw a small panel, double the size of her hand.

"Ask it to open?" She said, puzzled, and at that the panel beeped and the gate's extremities fizzled, rising it open to let them pass.

"Brilliant. I knew that would work," he clapped his hands twice, smiling proudly. "Come along", he nudged his head onward, going inside.

She followed him, feeling proud she had helped. A few seconds later – again, brain lagging due to adrenalin – she wondered what she had done exactly? After a few seconds, it came to her that the door had perhaps reacted to the word 'open' she had accidentally said.

"Why did that work?"

The Doctor didn't break his stride, nor did he stop looking around, side to side as they they crossed multiple cells. "What worked?"

"Me telling the door to open."

"Well," he suddenly interrupted himself, looking at his gizmo. "Tell this cell to open," he whispered to her, pointing to his right.

"What? But there's no panel."

He pulled her in and looked at her, gravely, glancing at the end of the hall "just do it!"

Wide-eyed and confused, she turned to the side and said "open."

The cell again buzzed, and opened. The Doctor pushed her inside.

"Close it, close it!"

"Close," she said, and the door closed.

"Now ssshhhh…." The Doctor asked of her, mysteriously looking around as if waiting to hear something. And soon enough, crushing steps came approaching.

It was a monster, like in her memory.

 _No, they're robots. Robots piloted by aliens, I have to remember. Uh, aliens!_

She was more excited than scared, a dichotomy that quickly switched around when the sound didn't stop approaching. Gasping, she stepped back frightened. The Doctor quickly followed her steps, whispering very softly.

"Shshhsh…don't worry…he won't notice us…"

And he didn't. The sound passed through the door and continued on lowering its volume until it disappeared from hearing. They waited a few moments longer, tense. The Doctor pointed his screwdriver at the different ends of the corridor

Finally, he smiled content and waved her along.

"Alright, let's be off, my friends must be tired of waiting, I'm sure. Get this thing open."

She did so, they were back to trailing the hall in a matter of seconds. She slowly relaxed, calming down after the near encounter with one of the beasts. After she felt appropriately calm, she remembered the Doctor had not explained why the panels were responding to her commands.

"Doctor," she called out.

"Yes?" He said, glancing back at her for a second – which seemed to be about as long as he could look at anything really – before resuming his visual scrutiny of all that surrounded him.

"Why are the doors opening when I ask them?"

"Well I'd gather it's because you have such a convincing voice," he jested, smirking at her "or a sweet voice, or perhaps it is your commanding tone or fear," he added, looking ahead "we should really be asking the doors." The tone with which he proposed that idea was actually serious and brimming with curiosity, but still, he was clearly japing.

Annabella raised an eyebrow, but as she was going to respond in an effort to force him to give a proper explanation, the Doctor raised his voice to call out. "Amy! Rory? Can you hear me?"

"Wha—"

"DOCTOR?!" a female voice sounded out in response, blocking her own. She would be utterly confused if the doctor hadn't warn, in a quick passing comment, that he was saving some friends. Funny enough, she only really processed that comment right then.

It was strange how hard it was to keep up with what he said, she was beginning to think that while he said most things passively and absent-mindedly, they were all very important.

She had to pay more attention. Maybe she _should_ be talking to doors?

"Amy?!" The Doctor shouted back. "Speak, Amy, speak!"

"Doctor, over here!"

He followed the voice of this Amy character to a cell's gate. Like all others, it didn't have a visor nor anything to see through. He smiled, glad, and looked at Annabella.

"Terrific. Now, Annabella, if you would be so kind..."

Annabella nodded a smile, glad to be of help.

"Open," the small cell door obeyed, slowly opening. And from inside, a woman jolted out, leaping at the Doctor.

She hugged him, and him her while a man followed her out. His hair was blonde wanting to be black. He had such bright eyes and was, without a doubt, handsome. He walked sort of timidly out of the jail cell though not without purpose.

"Doctor," he greeted, a bit doubtful. When Amy let go of the Doctor, Annabella was surprised to notice how much alike herself she was. Red-headed and fair skinned, they were definitely from the same gene pool, whatever it was.

But they were even more surprised to see her. And more confusing yet, they actually recognized her.

"Doctor?!" Amy reacted, confused. "What's **she** doing here?"

Annabella winced, entirely involuntarily, as her brain ran to understand what was happening.

Had they met? No, at least, she hadn't met them. She wanted to voice the question but she felt it was stupid since they had obviously met her.

Once she introduced the time-travel variable into the equation, though, she reached the conclusion they were talking about some future version of her.

Their dress code matched her era, but she was now millenniums ahead of her era. Had they thus met some decade-older version of her? Time travel, after all, didn't just worked in thousands of years.

The doors responded to her, however. That was the primary clue that burst open the flood of understanding that connected all the dots. The realization transformed her face and she noticed the Doctor was looking at her, reading her mind.

"How do they know me?" Annabella asked him, a bit shyly.

"Annabella, Amy and Rory. Amy and Rory, Annabela," he introduced them.

"Hum…" Annabella awkwardly lifted her hand, "hello."

The Doctor tapped his mouth and looked up in thought.

"You know, calling you Annabella is much too tiresome, it's too big," the Doctor voiced in affront as if this was a big problem, "And Annie's too close to Amy, it'll be confusing. Last name's too formal, too, right?" He asked Amy and Rory, but he didn't actually wait for a reply.

"Stella," he raised a finger, "I'll call you Stella."

"What? No," Annabella blushed, Stella reminded her of that play. A voice of a comedian screaming Stella at the top of his lungs sounded loudly in her head and she couldn't take the embarrassment, "don't call me Stella."

"Well what else can I call you?!"

"You can call me Anna," she said. She always liked Anna.

"How about Leader?" Another and all too familiar voice sounded out from behind Annabella.

Amy and Rory opened their eyes in surprise and Annabella turned around at the sound of crashing steps. She saw two of the machines, as tall and big as she remembered them, towering over the woman they were flanking like guards.

The woman was stunning. easily in her mid-30s, if not at their start. She was dressed in a flamboyant pale-white dress which enriched her pale skin, despite the glowing purplish veins that formed patterns across her skin, glowing through the dress.

Her eyes were blue, her lips light pink, and her hair red. Annabella was looking at some kind of mirror and that was the final point of all her thinking.

Her mind went blank.

Future self, a future self that the Doctor's companions knew. No, that **the Doctor** knew. The gates and technological world obeyed Annabella's commands, a technology that was biological, alive, that would know the voice of…their leader.

"D.d.d. ?!" Annabella pleaded, almost losing strength in her legs.

"Doctor?" Amy echoed the confusion.

"Doctor!?" Rory asked, half-demanding.

"The Doctor," her future self announced, in greeting, with a pleased smile.

Everyone was looking at him and he grinned like a kid holding a broken toy out of view which had obviously been seen.

He tugged at his bowtie in an apparent nervous twitch, shaking his head to the side a bit as his eyes glanced at all of them, one at a time.

Then he just looked at them all, joining his hands in front of his head.

"Well, this is awkward."

* * *

 ** _Part End: Thank you for reading, please consider leaving a review if you have the time._**

 _Ok, well, hold on to your horses 'cause this is about to get very wobbly very quickly. The plot continues to tangle on the next part._

 _Also don't worry, the story is fully written. Next update will come up next week, God willing._


	4. Chapter 4 - There's Always Hope

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to Doctor Who.**_

 _ **Annabella ©2011-2016 MamaBunyip**_

 _ **Everything else and story line by me but of course they're set in the Dr. Who Universe so I still hold no rights to them.**_

 _ **Story takes place somewhere in the 11th Doctor Era. I hope you enjoy it!**_

 _ **Rating: It's perfectly safe for the whole family, like the show. So don't worry.**_

* * *

 **PART 4: There's always hope**

The doctor eyed the three foes, his eyes skipping and switching with a hint of note, but none of worry. He smiled again.

"Empress Christie! The leader of the Bleaks, how wonderful it is to see you," he said, extending his hands towards her like he wanted to hug while managing to not move an inch. She, in turn, folded her arms in deflection and smiled knowingly, as if she knew all that he was saying. "Will you still be fighting me, then? Or will you just let this conquering business go?"

"It's a slaughter, Doctor, conquering implies pushback. And no, we won't let it go."

"Really? I have defeated you Bleaks once. I have defeated many like you, I'm sure you know. More dangerous, more powerful, less dangerous, less powerful, it really doesn't matter, I'm the Doctor."

"Whose Doctor, though?" She asked, visibly leading him to answer.

"Everyone's", he gladly told her. She cracked a wider smile in reaction before loudly laughing. It was an evil laugh and she didn't cover it with her hand like Annabela would. It had a presence to it that drove Rory and Amy to step back a bit, unknowingly flinching.

"Remarkable," she remarked, "it's all just like I remember...I suppose from here on, it's going to be a never ending déjà vu."

"What's going on?!" Annabella finally questioned, and her future-self turned to her.

"The Destruction of quadrants, Annabella," she told her, waving a hand at her. "The assimilation of species, the slaughter of life, the darkening of stars, the rise to ultimate power," she opened both her arms, presenting herself to her past as if it was good news. "Our emancipation, my dear!"

She had looked away from the Doctor during her over-the-top amazing performance, which had caught the attention of Annabella, Rory and Amy. As she finished, she was looking up like in contact with the star and, for that reason, did not notice how not impressed the Doctor was. Or how busy, for that matter.

She was still looking up when the bleak machine to her left sizzled and short-circuited, falling forward. She jolted down and looked at the Doctor who was holding his sonic screwdriver.

"Oh, right," she casually commented while he pulled it back and waved it, recharging. "It's annoyingly difficult to remember all the details." She pointed at them and yelled out, "kill him!"

The Doctor opened his eyes as the remaining bodyguard flexed its legs. He pointed the screwdriver but changed his mind almost immediately.

"Jump!"

They all jumped out of the way and, before they had even landed, the Bleak flung himself in-between them like a hurled gigantic boulder. When Annabella opened her eyes, still lying on the ground, she saw the Doctor spinning in the ground to aim his screwdriver at the bodyguard, who had crashed into a wall on the far side of the hall.

It beeped and the machine short-circuited and fell onto its back.

The Doctor then rolled and crouched to stand up, aiming his screwdriver at her future self, the Empress. Unlike Annabella, however, the Empress was not one to stand around gawking. She had started running towards him and was thus in time to kick it off his hands.

Startled, he looked up in time receive a backhand to the face.

"Unf!"

He jerked and fell to the side.

"Hey!" Amy and Rory ran to help him but she turned and walked in their direction, smiling.

Effortlessly, she grabbed Rory's first punch, spinning and throwing him over her shoulder, so he'd land on top of the doctor, then she spun and met Amy's stomach with a jab. She placed her hands on her thighs and pushed Amy over herself so that she'd land behind her, also on top of Doctor and Rory.

"Uff!"

"Ow!"

"No…more helping," the Doctor complained, catching his breath.

"The Doctor, always without weapons, isn't that right? How have you survived for so long is beyond me." She pointed a finger at him and the whole finger started glowing with the same color that trailed patterns across her skin. Glowing brighter and brighter.

 _No…_

Without thinking, Annabella dashed to protect the Doctor and his friends. She sprawled herself to cover them with her body, practically hugging the heap the Empress had made of them. Her back to her future self, to her enemy.

For a few seconds, which felt like years, she hugged the misshapen mound made of the three people there cluttered, with a frown made of the effort to stay there, to do what she had too.

She was scared but she shivered that away and just lay there in their defense.

"You idiot," she heard her voice say, and it was still strange, to hear her voice from some other lips; a voice with a different life to it. Still, while it had sounded amused before, now it was cold and harsh. "Better they die now than later. The Bleaks are not as quick about that business as I can be."

"Well…" Annabella saw the Doctor crawling from under his friends, "that's a business we're not…ugn, interested in." The Doctor stood up and re-arranged his tie, slapping his jacket clean.

The Empress pointed at him but Annabella got in the way again.

 _She can't kill me!_ She realized, feeling panic subsiding, _She'll die if she does!_

"I've seen the future, Doctor. Through her eyes," she pointed at Annabella. "I win. I always win. And the Bleaks, defined in your mind as nothing but a passing threat, one more amongst hundreds, another regular day…they will be your undoing."

"Come with us," the Doctor suddenly said. Rory and Amy were getting up already, behind Annabella.

"What?" Amy protested.

"You want to stop it too, right? What they've done to you. So come with us, we'll defeat them all together."

She was rendered truly dumbfounded by this offer, which struck Annabella as strange since she should have expected it.

"Was it my tone? Out of everything, this is quite honestly the moment I never really understood. Why did you think I wanted to stop it?" She stepped forward, shaking her head curious and amused. She walked suggestively towards him. "You mistake my clemency for lack of purpose, Doctor. I **will** rule everything…"

"That remains," she added, stepping back. "So go," she pulled well away from them, "go back to your Tardis, put Rory and Amy back where they belong and proceed to try and use that sniveling child to try and counter my plans."

The Doctor opened his eyes in dark surprise. Annabella looked from one to the other.

 _That's why he wants me, to tell him how she thinks._

"Honestly, the very thought **you** believe that whelp can understand my mind is demeaning and offensive. It's basically you assuming I evolved nothing at all," she scoffed, shaking her head again. "But go ahead," she turned around and walked away and out. "Far from me to presume to change the events to come. After all, might be that killing you all would actually lead to my eventual defeat."

Annabella frowned in annoyance, it was very upset to see herself such a huge fan of gloating.

"You seem really sure of yourself, Empress Christie." The Doctor spoke with a grave tone, a tone a father would use to correct someone else's son. "I'm warning you now to stop all of this. There's still time to stop it all. Or I **will** be coming for you. Do you hear me?"

"Ever heard words lose their power the more they're said?" She glanced back with a hint of a victorious smirk, so to show just how little power his words had on her. "We fled back then, Doctor, so go ahead and flee right now." She kept walking, turning the curve to disappear beyond the hall, her voice a foreboding echo of contempt, "or die. All the same to me."

A chilled silence set after that. Not even Rory or Amy said anything for a few seconds and the Doctor was still looking at the end of the hall…thinking.

Then came Amy's voice.

"Thank you."

Annabella turned and saw she was looking at her. Without noticing, she had been standing in front of them, just to make sure. Most of all, however, with the Empress gone, it was as if her wits came crashing down on her. She blinked and felt wetness coursing her cheeks.

"Are you alright?"

"I-"

"You're crying," Rory noted.

"Oh…sorry," she wiped her eye with her hand, surprised to see she was crying. She was lightheaded and abuzz with what had been said, with what she had seen.

"We need to go," the Doctor pointed out, leading the way. He was no longer amused nor content. He marched back the way they had come in with an odd and new sense of purpose that Annabella hadn't yet witnessed.

"Doctor?" Amy followed, Rory waited for Annabella to react.

"Anna, come on," he urged her, extending a hand. She looked at it, frightened. It took her some seconds of staring to summon up the strength to move.

She nodded, more to herself than to Rory, and walked off so decidedly she absent-mindedly ignored his hand.

Nobody talked. Silence stretched the tension of all that had happened across a very awkward amount of time.

In a matter of minutes, they were back at the Tardis. Rory closed the door behind Annabella and all the while, the Doctor was already fiddling with his levers and switches.

"We're in, Doctor," Rory let him know.

"Then we're off," he said, distant.

The ship rumbled and, instantly, they were traveling again. When the Doctor finally stopped messing with the panels, he started looking at a screen that was hanging from the ceiling. He watched intently and focused, his mind seemingly years away.

Annabella didn't feel she could interrupt but Amy was apparently made of more brave stuff.

"Doctor, where are we going?"

"Back to your time-frame, I'm dropping you off," he said, thoughtful.

"That's what she wants you to do, Doctor," Rory added

"Yeah! We'll help you, instead," Amy proposed.

"Or it's what she doesn't want me to do and so she tells me to do it so I don't do it."

"Reverse psychology?"

He glanced at them with a cunning smile. "Works surprisingly well when the other knows you're from a future he wants to change. So I'm going to ignore what she said," he looked at Annabella, "unless you have another idea, Anna."

Annabella looked startled.

She opened her mouth but nothing came out. She had nothing to say, except for questions. They were flooding her mind, maybe the right thing to say was somewhere in there, drowning in all the questions. She decided to compromise and state a question.

"She's…me."

The Doctor frowned a bit, sadly, and said "yes."

"How is that possible?"

"I don't know yet," he told her, "and I'll explain what I know later, but first, I'll need an opinion, Annabella. You have to tell me, put yourself in her shoes, would you go out of your way to trick me? If you knew you had won, that you would win, would you go out of your way to trick me?"

"I uh…" her eyes gained a layer of tear but none actually fell. She shifted them in thought and nervousness. She brought her hand up to massage her forehead and then felt an arm around her shoulders. It was Rory.

"It's okay, we're all safe now."

"I understand this is all too much to take in, Anna," the Doctor said, saddened by the necessity, "but I really have to decide what to do as fast as possible."

She wanted Rory and Amy to stay. It'd be nice to have some company. But then she remembered all her games of chess with her father. When she was winning, she kept taunting him, telling him to make the moves she didn't want him to do. Moves she could beat, just in case he did them – and sometimes he did - but at the same time, they were harder to counter than the ones she actually expected out of him.

She told the Doctor exactly that, or she tried amid the hesitation and stuttering.

"I see," the Doctor said, looking her in the eyes. "Thank you, Anna. I'm going to take you two back," he decided, looking at them and before running up to pull a lever.

Annabella finally lost strength in the legs, she dropped to her knees.

She was the leader of an alien race bent on conquering the universe…how did that happen? How could she ever wish ill on others? And the way she talked…like this had always happened before, as if the Doctor and Amy and Rory all died. She…the Empress had spoken like she won, wins, and would win…

Annabella was afraid to admit that she had never taunted during a game and then lost.

"Don't worry," a voice came from the side. It was Amy this time. She knelt, placing her hands on her knees. "The Doctor will fix all this, we won't let them turn you into that…Empress"

 _Yes, that's right! Those lights coursing through my…through her skin. She went through some kind of transformation, that's it! The Bleaks did something to her, like mind control._ All they had to do was keep her from being kidnapped…

"He always does. If there's something I've learned from spending time with the Doctor, Anna, is that he never loses. Because he always has hope, he never fails to catch those solutions that only show up when you least expect them to."

If you don't have hope then you won't be expecting a break, a solution to come up. Annabella understood that it was a new thought, but true enough, she felt.

"I was dead once," Rory said, interrupting them, and Annabella looked back and up at him. "Then the Doctor made it better," he jested with a small shrug. Amy giggled.

"It can get pretty crazy."

She looked at the Doctor and he was smiling at her in that way that eased the tension and encouraged trust.

She recognized then that it wasn't really trust, since you can't trust an alien liar you know nothing about. What it really was was hope…that he was really everyone's Doctor.

That he would be her Doctor.

* * *

 ** _Part End: Thank you for reading, please consider leaving a review if you have the time._**

 _I hope you're not too confused. Next up, plot thickens as we learn all that the Doctor knows about these Bleaks._

 _Also don't worry, the story is fully written. Next update will come up next week, God willing._


	5. Chapter 5 - A Bleak Prophecy

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to Doctor Who.**_

 _ **Annabella ©2011-2016 MamaBunyip**_

 _ **Everything else and story line by me but of course they're set in the Dr. Who Universe so I still hold no rights to them.**_

 _ **Story takes place somewhere in the 11th Doctor Era. I hope you enjoy it!**_

 _ **Rating: It's perfectly safe for the whole family, like the show. So don't worry.**_

* * *

 **PART 5: A Bleak Prophecy  
**

It was hard to convince Amy to leave, and Rory would stick with her. But the Doctor managed it. They were nice and compassionate, telling Annabella to keep her hopes up and never despair, they had seen the future being re-written dozens of time.

She smiled but was sad to see them go. The Doctor left her in the Tardis alone while he escorted the couple back to their home. It took him some minutes to return.

"I'd still prefer that they stayed," she admitted, hearing the Doctor closing the door to the Tardis.

"Me too," he told her, looking at her with a grin of agreement. He then broke eye contact and moved to handle his controls.

"Can you explain it to me now, Doctor?"

He stopped and turned. And paused.

"Ah," he seemed to remember, "yes, I suppose you deserve to know what's going on."

"I…yes, I think so? Do we have time?"

The Doctor's eyes looked up and to the side in thought.

"Yes. I've explained what the Bleaks are, correct?"

"Yes. They have a bio…they're connected to the machines at a deep level. And they want to conquer entire systems."

"Hm, yes, that was before I got another good look at them. The Bleaks have a connection to their machines of the likes I've never seen. It surpasses a psychic link, you know? The machines…they're clearly alive but they're not biotechnology and…I'm not really sure who the Bleaks are anymore. Is the machine ridden by the flesh or does the flesh provide the power for the machine to live, being no more important than a heart is to you."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean the Bleak inside the machine shouldn't short-circuit along with the machine," he pondered, looking around in thought again, "his brain, sure, maybe takes a jolt and pass out, depends on the cranial substance, but all its nerves? The muscles and the organs, they also went haywire. I didn't notice the first time because Jack killed the Bleak, but now it's clear. And you," he looked at her, but immediately seemed to mentally slap himself in the face, jerking it around, "I mean, Empress Christie. She registered as a machine. The same life signs, it's just…confusing."

"But why her? Why me?"

He looked at her, realizing he detoured his thoughts to what he didn't know. She was starting to realize that was his favorite thing: thinking about what he didn't know.

"Right then, apologies. The Bleaks have a prophecy about an alien, well, alien to them. This alien would look different on the outside but he would be them on the inside. They believe this alien to be their Alexander the Great. As another prophecy unfolded, one about the end of the universe - the silence that will fall - the Bleaks became more aggressive about finding their alien."

She blinked while he approached her, continuing, "they came out of their ages-old hiding and started scouting the universe. And later, they started kidnapping aliens and analyzing them to see if they were it. Again, aliens tothem. Oh and they killed those who weren't their great leader," he made a fist, "this is when Captain Jack called on me to kill them all if need be," he unmade his fist, and smiled awkwardly, "but I only wanted to stop them. And that's what we did."

Annabella heard it, already seeing where this train of thought was going to end up at, but completely clueless as to how.

"In any case, eventually, they came to Earth."

She blinked and he was right in front of her. He put his hands on her shoulders, talking to her earnestly, like giving her bad news.

"Jack didn't understand but I did. All their technology is alive, especially their main mother ship, which is as alive as you or me, Anna. It's a part of that biological existence, you understand? All their technology is as alive as those who pilot it, and from what I saw today, it…seems to have a conscience."

She blinked again, her mind a void receptive to everything he was saying.

"The moment they brought you into one of their ships, it knew who you were. It then teleported you to the mother ship. We ran into you, Anna, because their whole fleet had initiated preparations protocol, and we needed to stop it."

"Preparation?" Annabella asked.

"For war. They had found their prophesized leader, you understand? But I stole you away from them. And crippled them, too. But the point is you're it. Their leader, their Alexander the Great, Empress Christie!" He let her go, spinning once in frustration.

"But…that's impossible! I'm me, I was born like everyone else, I—"

"Yes, of course you were," he told her, coming back to her, lowering his head to look her in the eye, and using a tone of grave compassion. "Your father was a man, your mother was a woman, they're your parents, you're **human** …it's just that you're also something more."

"I…" she blinked, her heart racing, "I still…how am I something more?"

"I dunno," he opened his arms in protest. "I had hoped they had made a mistake. That at the least, they would give up. But they didn't, did they? No, nobody ever listens to me. Nobody ever listens to their Doctor. That's as true anywhere as it is on your Earth."

"What do you mean? They didn't return for me."

"Yes they did," he said, hopping back to his controls.

"But…you're the one who—"

"Think about it, Anna," he requested, interrupting her, "your future self is with them. And it knew about us, about me rescuing my friends. What you don't know is that she, Empress Christie, kidnapped them without provocation. We weren't trying to stop them or anything, we were at a resort having a drink. Somehow, they were kidnapped and I managed to flee."

That had been exactly what Christie had assumed.

"She kidnapped them and locked them in a jail full of locks I couldn't get past," he looked behind at her, displeased, "something **also** very odd," he looked back at a particular screen, squinting his eyes in concentration.

"All so I'd need to get you and bring you. But I didn't even know the Bleaks were on the move 'till Amy and Rory were gone and she contacted me."

"I'm lost, what does that mean?"

"That she's fighting a time war, Annabella. So the start to this all was that the bleaks went back for you, probably while I was otherwise preoccupied, and converted you to the Empress. So I went to the past and saved you from them, or tried, but they can time-travel too, apparently. Or worse," he interrupted hmself, "survive a time change." He paused for a few seconds.

It was a long and uncomfortable pause; his hands stopped, his whole body halted as his brain worried about thinking alone. It had occurred to him then, it seemed, and now he couldn't believe, or estimate, how or what consequences would derive from such a thing.

"I'm sorry," he mentally snapped back, "where was I? Oh yes, so she, or they, went to the past and fought me. Or I blundered and got you converted, or transformed - all the same - and from then on, it's been a back and forth and back and forth, for generations of ourselves, until she managed to lock me into a set of actions that guarantees her victory."

Annabella blinked, this time to close her eyes. She massaged her head in thought.

"So all this has happened before?"

"She can't travel in time, not like me I don't think, but she gets enough from your experience. She probably knows and remembers this very conversation. Or perhaps the Doctor she knew ignored her and took Amy and Rory along. That would be a good thing."

"I think I understand. It's like a chess game where she already saw our moves, and as long as she makes the same moves she saw herself make, the game will develop in the same way."

"Unless we can break free of the box," the Doctor said, smirking excitedly at her. "In a way, I'm not actually trying to beat the empress as I am trying to outdo myself! Only by doing better than I did before will we defeat her. And together, we can do it!"

In the midst of confusion and despair, Annabella had to admit she still felt...pride. Empress Christie was, in a way, her, and she had really thought this whole thing through.

"Break free of the box?"

"Think outside the box, you know the expression, right? You should, humans came up with it. And with good reason. You know prejudice? It means thinking within a judgment that was made before actually thinking about it. Any thought that is prejudiced to a limitation, even our capacity, is thinking inside the box. If we can think outside the box, we can mess up her plans, and at the very least leave some more leeway for some other us to defeat her," he smiled mischievously.

"But won't anything we think about mirror our past decisions?"

"We need to ignore our preferred notions. We need to think and consider only those we wouldn't think to consider…"

"But we'll still arrive at the same answers we would have arrived before, won't we?"

Her head was aching now. Since it was all really heavy stuff to think about, it was like metal sheets were making knots in her head using the flexibility of an anvil, but the Doctor seemed to be enjoying it.

"We have a big advantage, though, Anna. For every new move we make, she has to adjust her plan, adjust her moves. And our big advantage? We only have to win once."

She saw his gaze and couldn't keep herself from smiling. How could he be so optimistic?

"She has to keep winning," she heard herself say. He smiled wider.

"Exactly, we just need to win once!"

He then sort of shivered, his eyes lighting up with an idea. He leaped and grabbed a lever, pulling it. The Tardis rumbled so hard it almost threw Annabella to the ground.

"Whoah, what is it? Where are we going now?"

"Where we shouldn't. More importantly, where we wouldn't."

She looked puzzled.

"To their mother ship," the Doctor said. And that surprised her.

"What? Why?"

"Did you hear us talk?" He asked. "We talked about you, the Empress, that she had to be defeated, that we needed to beat her. Us and her, her and us, she playing the game of chess she saw herself lose."

"So?"

He smiled victoriously at her.

"So we're not gonna beat her at all. It's not her we want, Anna, it's the bloke who set up the chess board!"

She opened her eyes in realization.

"The machines read as an intelligent life-form, Anna. Like a conscious, rational, intelligent life-form. Why do they need the actual Bleaks, then? Are they nothing more than a power source? Or do they serve some more necessary purpose?"

"But the mother ship is where they sent me…to transform me into the Empress."

The Doctor grinned wide, proud.

"So that's where we'll get to the bottom of who our true enemy is. If we defeat whoever's setting up the game for us to play-"

"Who's winning won't matter!" She blurted out, excited.

"A tie by default and everyone goes home happy and alive," he span, shaking a bit as if on the verge of starting a dance.

He didn't, however, he stopped to face Annabella with his arms open.

"Just the way I like it!"

* * *

 ** _Part End: Thank you for reading, please consider leaving a review if you have the time._**

 _Next up, they take the fight to the main villain! It won't go well at all._

 _Also don't worry, the story is fully written. Next update will come up next week, God willing._


	6. Chapter 6 - A trap within a trap

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to Doctor Who.**_

 _ **Annabella ©2011-2016 MamaBunyip**_

 _ **Everything else and story line by me but of course they're set in the Dr. Who Universe so I still hold no rights to them.**_

 _ **Story takes place somewhere in the 11th Doctor Era. I hope you enjoy it!**_

 _ **Rating: It's perfectly safe for the whole family, like the show. So don't worry.**_

* * *

 **PART 6: A trap within a trap within a trap**

Anabella woke up easily enough.

It took some looking around and mirror staring to come to accept that her time with the Doctor hadn't been a dream, but despite all the danger, it filled her day with a sense of purpose which was infinitely better when compared to the apathy she was used to feel.

There was just something about trying to save the universe that made her feel more important than weigh some tables. She put on her clothes which consisted in a one-piece white dress, sneakers and a small grey overcoat, just in case their destination was cold.

She climbed down the stairs trying to remember the way back to the main room, the control room that led to the exit door. As she made her way in, she could hear the Doctor talking.

"Just listen. To me," he gravely requested, as the control room crept into view, "we have no other choice. Do it, or the Silence is going to be the least of our worries."

Leaving the stairs, she allowed her foot steps to alert the Doctor of her presence. He gazed towards her. He looked a bit distressed for a second but then he smiled and nudged her along.

"Yes, yes, well, as long as you hurry, I am confident you'll be able to make it in time. But please, keep a line open at all times, you know how it goes..."

He waited a few seconds, giggled, and then voiced out with a warming smile.

"Yes, that. Definitely that. Good luck, River."

He put down the phone and looked at Annabella. "Good morning, Anna! Did we sleep well?"

"Well enough," she nodded, "what was that about? You sounded worried."

"Oh, posh," he waved the concern aside with a jesting smirk, "us Doctors are always worried. Especially about someone who's adamant to not listen to us."

She smiled, "how long 'till we get there? And what are we going to do once we do?"

"Why, investigate, of course," he looked at a screen, "should be another few minutes. We might as well have breakfast while we wait, right?"

And they did. They went to another room, there was fruit there. then came back to crash-land at their destination.

Leaving the police-box, they were met with…nothing. Looking back, Annabella saw a large and open world, dark except for a purplish hue which glowed through the black machinery that built the world around them, every piece of it far away. She recognized it immediately.

"This is where…"

"Yes," the Doctor confirmed, "but back then, you were not Empress yet. Now, you can take down the shields."

It was the place she remembered. The place she drew, the world she woke up on when she was kidnapped as a child. It made her specially uneasy, in a way she couldn't very well describe other than by comparison to how it felt the day after she ate that horrible liver sandwich.

 _Wait, shields?_

"What shields?"

He led her forward.

"This mothership has shields that the Tardis can't go through."

"But can't it go anywhere?"

He stopped.

"Anywhere in any dimension and any space. But this—" he pointed his sonic screwdriver, pushing it against the air. It collided with something, and reacted immediately and aggressively, releasing sparks against what now showed itself to be a shield. Purplish, obviously, it formed a membrane that went upwards.

"It's a dome, made of…you know how molecules are made of atoms which are made of sub-atomic particles, quarks and on and on?"

"Yes?"

"Well, no matter is truly hollow, void doesn't have a manifestation, right? The smallest component of all is composed of concentrated…you don't have a word for it yet, let's call it existence uhm…juice. Life energy. This shield's made of that. It can't be bent, it can't be broken, it makes it impossible for anything existing to cross it."

"Wow."

"Yes, that's what I said when I first saw them too!" He was proudl of that, for some reason. "It should take the direct energy of a star to feed something like this so it stands to reason this ship has some kind of remarkable power source. I don't know what but it's gotta have the rough output of a star."

"Wow, scary…" she said in awe, "so what do we do?"

"Same thing we did in the prison," he smiled to her, "command it."

Annabella opened her eyes, blushing a bit, "oh."

"Hum," she turned towards the shield, then felt silly for thinking that mattered. For a lack of something to look at, she looked up. "Close the shield, I wish to pass."

Unlike in the prison, though, the shield did not change. Of course, it was invisible so it wasn't exactly easy to tell if it didn't change.

"Doctor?"

"It's still there…" he reported after a few beeps from the screwdriver. "odd, I wonder if the Empress has—" *voooon…*

The shield interrupted the Doctor, turning off. He pointed the sonic screwdriver at it, making noises.

"Ah, there we go," he said, putting his sonic screwdriver away, pleased with himself. He walked out, leading her. But as soon as they passed it, it hummed and turned on again.

They glared back, both equally startled.

"I…didn't say anything," she pointed out.

"This isn't good," he said, looking around, but nothing was visible except for what was now a visible end to that massive room. There was a door leading into the rest of the ship. It slid open for them, even at that distance, as soon as the Doctor looked at it.

They waited for something to come out but nothing did.

"Looks like somebody's home…" the Doctor drew his sonic screwdriver but didn't point it at anything, like a gun with the safety on, "and they're expecting us, too," he added with an interested tone of voice.

"Wha-what do we do?"

"Well, let's not be bad guests," he said, stepping forward. "Follow me and stay close, we have no route of escape unless that shield is turned off."

"But I can't order it, can I?"

"No… we were tricked, it seems. Let's see what they have in store for us."

She followed but Annabella wasn't feeling very confident. If they walked into a trap, that meant they had failed to pick the course of action that was different from the other timeline. That in turn meant they had already lost, but what would they lose, exactly?

"Should we really be heading towards…whatever it is? It's most likely the Empress or some other Bleak."

"I prefer to have the danger in front of me, myself."

That was odd, they had run from the Empress.

"What do you mean? We just ran from the Empress."

"Not while we couldn't," the Doctor jested, "always face the danger if you know you can't escape it."

She smiled, not feeling all that scared despite the fact they had obviously been trapped. The Tardis was on the other side of the shield, after all.

They went through the door. The corridors were so poorly lit the Doctor used his sonic screwdriver as a flashlight, looking around intently.

Attentive and interested as ever, he led her from corridor to corridor and every single door would close, all except for one.

"Doesn't it scare you? To be led like this?"

"Oh you have no idea…" the Doctor said while looking up and licking his lips, he turned his gaze again to look at a door opening, "but as long as you don't let it become hesitation, fear's a very useful thing. All good soldiers know this. Being fearless is for the suicidal idiots."

"How did you defeat the Bleaks the first time? If you couldn't get to the heart of the mothership, what did you do?"

"We got to its tail," the Doctor said, "the engines. I rigged them to blow up. They did and took everything wit them. Well, except for what was inside this dome, of course."

"Including the Bleaks?"

"Most of them yes…an…" it was painful for him to say that, it was easy to tell, "I warned them, you know? I always do. But people never quit. They never do. Like I said, they never listen to the Doctor. It was a really bad necessity."

And then they stumbled into a round room, this one had no doors but the one through which they had entered, which quickly closed behind them. The purplish hue that flowed across the walls and ceilings like veins converged there. They formed wires and then cables of pulsing life energy that led to what looked like a giant cocoon. Or a capsule if one was more inclined to machinery-based comparisons over those of nature.

It opened, showing nothing inside.

It took a moment for the Doctor to react.

"Bollocks!" He jerked to the side and flung his arm open to stand between Annabella and the cocoon as quickly as he could.

"No, that's impossible," he pointed his sonic screwdriver at it, it beeped and blinked green, then he shook it and looked at it. "Wha…what?!" He waved it around, staring intently.

"Oh no…we made a huge mistake…"

"What? What is it?"

"We…somehow, when? When did it happen?!"

"What's wrong, Doctor?"

"We…" he sounded hurt, defeated. He looked down and then towards the cocoon, "we went back in time. Somewhere, one of those rooms must have-this was a double trap."

"A triple, actually," a voice emanated from all around them.

An obviously synthesized voice that sounded feminine and middle-aged. The Doctor opened his eyes and looked around while forcing Anna to step back against the wall. "One, I trapped you so you couldn't get away. Two, I led you to **_when_** the prophecy is realized, and final third…I led you to **_where_**."

"Your voice," the Doctor pointed out, his eyes and head ever twisting and turning, his eyes squinting. "It's synthesized. What are you?" He waved his sonic screwdriver around, waved it and looked at it. His eyes opened in shock. "This is...what **are** you? You read like a-"

"You should be more worried about what **you** are about to become. Time Lord."

He looked up and gave the surrounding voice a smirk, all the while tapping his sonic screwdriver.

"Am I supposed to be impressed? Most of the Universe know what I am, but what are **you**? What do you need the Bleaks for? Why are you using them to power your machines? Are they no more than power sources?"

"I **am** the Bleak, Doctor." The voice chorused somewhat, booming dangerously. "They are me. We have been together since the beginning."

"Beginning of what?"

"Of me." He glanced at Annabella and rolled his eyes like they were sharing some insulting consideration of the thing that was speaking to them. "Now step aside, Doctor, and allow the prophecy to be realized."

Annabella wasn't thinking anything, she was still stunned, trying to decipher what the voice was, trying to reach all the answers the Doctor had already arrived at and possibly some he hadn't.

Then she felt her body stiffen.

"Doc—" but she couldn't finish her sentence as her lips and face also became rigid. She could only move her eyes to see herself being levitated and then pulled towards the cocoon.

The Doctor grabbed hold of her, though. He tried to pull against the force that was carrying her but he simply got dragged across the floor, his feet skidding uncontrollably.

"No…I didn't…" he fumbled his Sonic Screwdriver with one hand, she could feel his fingers wiggling across her belly.

"Not now, too soon…" he whispered to himself, in the heat of the struggle but she couldn't consider what the words meant. His fingers slipped and she heard him tumble to the floor as she flew towards the cocoon. She couldn't even whimper or moan as her body flipped around to lay inside back first. She saw the Doctor pushing himself up to run.

"Annabella! Don't take your eyes off me! Don't stop thinking!"

The cocoon hummed as it started closing, the Doctor reaching closer but taking too many seconds. His sonic screwdriver whistled in a very high pitched manner as he pointed at her as vigorously as he could. "Work, damn you!"

He looked her in the eyes, the cocoon was closing.

"Breathe and think, Anna! Breathe and thin!—" *CHUNK*

It closed. She kept her eyes open but it was dark. Pitch dark. And when it lit up with some light, it was a purplish light. The purplish light.

It was only when it hit her eyes that she noticed that it wasn't light but a liquid which was glowing just as brightly.

She opened her eyes wide as her heart raced and her brain hurt, both literally speaking. She abruptly felt stupid about all the times she had ironically said her brain hurt, that stupidity made her brain hurt. No, that liquid made it hurt. It was an interior pain, like someone was pouring salt-water into it.

She wanted to cry but she couldn't. She wanted to fight, to flail around, but she couldn't. Her mind began to fall asleep. Her eyes fought against her, they wanted to close despite the terror that afflicted her.

It was a nightmare. Worse than any she had had.

She would have given anything to be able to scream.

* * *

 ** _Part End: Thank you for reading, please consider leaving a review if you have the time._**

 _Oh boy! Things are so tense, huh? Next up, plot thickens even more, let's keep it up!_

 _Also don't worry, the story is fully written. Next update will come up next week, God willing._


	7. Chapter 7 - A Bleak Planet

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to Doctor Who.**_

 _ **Annabella ©2011-2016 MamaBunyip**_

 _ **Everything else and story line by me but of course they're set in the Dr. Who Universe so I still hold no rights to them.**_

 _ **Story takes place somewhere in the 11th Doctor Era. I hope you enjoy it!**_

 _ **Rating: It's perfectly safe for the whole family, like the show. So don't worry.**_

* * *

 **PART 7: A Bleak Planet**

"ANNA!"

Her eyes opened, frightened, to see the Doctor worriedly reaching out to her. She had dozed off, what had happened? Looking around, she confirmed she was still imprisoned.

She grabbed frantically at his arm so he could pull her out of the cocoon. She stepped out over struggling but enduring legs.

"What are you doing, Doctor?" The voice asked all around them.

"Stopping you. Stop this now or I will do much worse," he warned, the threat in his voice not really supported by his helping Anna get steady.

She looked around, and the scene was exactly the same. She glanced down at herself and saw no glowing veins or anything. And she had the same set of clothes. That all indicated the Doctor had gotten the cocoon open pretty much immediately.

"How long was I inside?"

He looked at her in that deeply worried gaze, and told her, "don't worry, you were only inside for a few seconds."

He then pulled her over to the exit door.

"You cannot stop me, Doctor. You have tried and failed many times already."

"Yes, well, you know me..." he pointed his gadget at the door, squinting his eyes.

"I will have my chosen. I will have my prophecy. It **will** be done."

"You know the thing about prophecies?" He asked Anna, smiling, "they don't mean anything when they don't come from a prophet."

He slammed his hand against the door, breathed out and put his ear to the sonic screwdriver. Then something clicked, and the door slid open.

"And you," he pointed at the ceiling, "you may be timeless, but you're no a prophet. I'm serious, one last chance before I leave through that door. One last moment before I bring. You. Down!" he jerked his arm around, "one last shot to do what the Cybermen never did. What the Daleks never did. What my own people failed to do! What a lot of other **_extinct_**! Species! Never did!"

He sounded serious. Anna could tell he meant it, he wanted there to be a way out of that conflict, a non-violent way.

"Stand down…and let's work this out."

A big moment of silence seemed to stretch for minutes on end even though, in fact, it was just a few seconds. The silence indicated it was thinking, which indicated there was a chance.

If only life was that easy.

"It is prophesized, Doctor. Neither you or me or anyone can do anything about it. I will be victorious."

"Don't give me that, don't you give me that."

"Surrender yourselves to fate."

"Ha!" The Doctor shook his head in disappointment. "I was making fate surrendering to **me** before you were even born, Bleak. Have it your way, just remember the Doctor gave you a chance!"

The Doctor squeezed Anna's hand - she felt his anger in his grip - and walked out.

"I have locked you in a loop, Doctor," the voice said as it was left behind, "not even you can break the cycle of destiny."

"Yeah, you just watch me," he responded in a dedicated whisper.

"Where are we going?" Anna asked, "isn't the shield out there? How can we go through it, you said—"

"I can't disable it from the outside, yes, but I'm not outside right now, am I?" He winked at her, "the shield generator has to be around here somewhere."

"And if it isn't?"

"Then the energy generator has to be around here somewhere," the Doctor jested, looking at her amused, "as long as you keep moving, something will always come up, Anna."

"Do you know what it is, then? That voice?"

He looked away.

"Yes. I think I understand what's going on, now. The Bleak's actually the - wait!"

He stopped them both, to listen. They heard the stampeding steps of a bleak.

"One's coming this way, we better turn here." He took her through the corridor at their right. "Fortunately for us, there aren't many bleaks left."

"What? Why, weren't there a lot of them? I remember there being an entire army here."

"We're a bit further into the future. After I crippled them," the Doctor told her, "ironic, really, I took you back to your house a few days ago. To think we were here while I was…hm!"

He suddenly stopped, looking inside a door. "What's that?"

The Doctor led her into the room, employing a conservative amount of silence and caution. It was dim-lit with the ever present purplish hue, but a Bleak was soon to appear, creating a shadow against the wall. The Doctor crouched, making her crouch as well while motioning for silence.

He looked at the scenery with interest, thinking. The farthest wall had a big panel across it, and though it had no buttons or levers or dials, it did sport cables and metallic bulges, and more notably, it was glowing much brighter.

The Doctor nodded and pointed the sonic screwdriver at the Bleak.

A moment later, it was lying on its back, debilitated. The Doctor was on the panel.

"Hm, yes, this is definitely something important."

"Doctor, what is it? That voice? What did you figure out? What did it read as when you scanned it that shocked you so much?"

"It read alive," he explained, "the walls, the ceilings, the floors…they all have life signs."

"Why is that so impressive?"

"Because they're the same readings I get from stars, Anna," he said, listening to the screwdriver as it squeaked at the panel. Even while absent-mindedly explaining things, he still sounded marveled. "I once encountered a cosmic conscience that stole its way into my Tardis. I think it lived inside a planet, this is sort of like that. But that was in another…in another place, outside this universe. And this is a star, I-"

He pulled away, listened to the air, and then jerked back in.

"Sorry, thought I heard something coming. We can definitely shut off the shields from here," the Doctor told her, "the real mechanism is in another place, but everything's connected so if I can…connect with the feed." He pulled back and stared it down, breathing tiredly, "come on, you bugger," he pleaded, annoyed, "come onnn…ah, ok ok, yes yes yeees…" He closed his eyes, focusing.

"Yes, got it! The shield's down, let's hurry."

He ran off, with her tagging along behind him.

"So this whole thing is alive?!"

"No, I've been wrong all this time. I've thought the machines were alive, but it turns out they just contain it. Powered by life, but not actually alive."

She tried to wrap her brain around the concept, and ended up with tangled thoughts.

"What…what's the difference? What does that mean?"

"It means I know what's happening, and now we can fight it. But first, we have to escape."

She didn't want to say anything more after that, afraid to waste breath now that she was tired. As they ran, her mind raced to keep up with what was happening. Trying to find understanding.

Previously, the Doctor had only been able to defeat the Bleaks by attacking outside of the shield. But now they were inside.

"Doctor!" She called out, stopping.

"What're you doing, Anna, we don't have time to be stopping."

"No..uff…listen to me. We can end it here, let's just find the heart of the thing."

The Doctor looked at Anna with a hint of pity in his eyes.

He blinked it away in an instant, "it has no heart, Anna, it doesn't work like that. Trust me, there's nothing we can do to kill it here. Now follow me."

Anna frowned, ashamed. "Oh, sorry," and ran to keep up.

They exited the facility from where they had come from, having met with no bleak besides the one from before, who had been guarding the door.

Running towards the Tardis, they had to stop so the Doctor aimed the sonic screwdriver and checked to see if the shield really was gone.

"Brilliant," he exclaimed, putting the gadget away.

They headed forward, towards the Tardis. There, waiting next to it, was a person. Her figure was visible as a blot next to the blue police box, but as they approached, the figure of a woman became discernible.

"Oh bolloooocks. What is **she** doing here?!"

Approaching, she saw it was a strong-looking woman, with curly light brown hair, gray eyes, and a cunning smile. She was dressed in a one piece black dress. The Doctor skipped to stand in front of her, notably displeased.

"What are you **doing** here?!"

"Oh, I was in the neighborhood."

"I told you—"

"It's nice to see you too, love," she interrupted him, approaching him suggestively. He backed away and spun around her, avoiding her touch.

"This isn't the time for that."

"Oh come now, it's always the time for that."

And that made the moment awkward enough for Annabella to feel the need to intrude.

"Who is she?"

She looked at Annabella, smiling at her, with a look as alive and intriguing as the Doctors', only less… lawful. Anna felt as though she liked taking risks and could very easily endanger their lives.

"River Song, dear. You can call me River. And you?"

"You know who she is," the Doctor complained, a bit judgmental all while opening the door to the Tardis, "come on, get in, both of you."

"Ah, as I expected, this place is about to go boom, right?"

"No," the Doctor stated, "that would serve no point. Get in."

"What do you mean?" River asked, confused. Annabella could understand the confusion, she herself had thought it a good opportunity, but alas…

"Look, I'll explain inside, alright?! Just please stop arguing and do what the Doctor says. Get inside."

"Well, fine then," she took a small device from the middle of her cleavage, smiled at the Doctor, and pressed a button on it.

"Yes? I've got a ride out, apparently. Feel free to leave."

After a moment of silence, she laughed, lightly, and added, "the antidote is in your cargo bay, darling, in the blue box," she winked at the Doctor, "nice working with you. Tata…"

She released the button and waved the Doctor along.

"You're so infuriating," the Doctor complained as they went inside.

"What? I thought you'd manage to beat the Bleaks here, I wanted to surprise you with how much faith I have in you. But guess this wasn't one of those days."

"It rarely is…" the Doctor sighed, looking at Annabella.

The door closed behind them.

"Here's what happened, Anna. I thought this was impossible, but it's the only explanation…" he massaged his nose, "we're dealing with a planetary conscience. Bleak is the planet, and I'm thinking he, she…is regarded as godly by the Bleaks. So it _was_ alive, but it was destroyed. You know how the stars you see might have died millions of years ago? It just takes the light longer to reach you?"

Annabella nodded.

"This is like that. This is living energy, the essence of a planet's core, but disembodied. It used some kind of…energy channeling, or morphing technology. Turned most of itself to light and sent it off to mingle with star rays. The light would then arrive at a receptacle, a living being that received starlight. Humans do that through their eyes: the visual spectrum. Every race the Bleaks attacked had that trait in common: they only see in the visual spectrum."

"Even considering everything we've gone through…" River put in, "that sounds like science fiction to me."

"Yes, fascinating, isn't it? That we can still find things we don't understand!" His giddiness made River giggle, and that small interaction really relaxed Anna a whole lot.

"However it managed to do it, there's no denying that the machines are imbued with a living, existing conscience. 'I think therefore I exist'…ha," he jested, smiling at his own cleverness. "But it's true, we can't kill it because it's pure energy. As to the prophecy, it probably told it to the Bleaks itself, knowing what it had done."

"I…I caught the rays," Annabella pointed out, "it's inside me, isn't it?"

"Yes, but it's fine as long as it's not stimulated to connect to the conscience. Energy is just energy. It's will that makes it life."

"Which is what the cocoon was for, huh?"

"Right," he said, looking sad. "I'm sorry Anna."

She felt like the unluckiest person in the world. Or in the several worlds that were getting light from that star system.

Rays of light had crossed half the cosmos waiting to be seen by anyone, and they had landed right in her eyes. She closed them now, massaging them with both her hands. How cursed could she be for something like that to happen? She was trying not to cry when she felt the Doctor's hands on her shoulders.

She looked back at him, on the verge of tearing.

"It's okay, Anna, we will fix this. I promise you, there is always a way out."

He smiled hopefully at her, nudging his head in to ask, "yeah?"

She sniffed. His confidence was intoxicating, she found herself cracking a light smile. "Yeah?" He asked again, smiling with his lips wide and funny.

"Yeah," she agreed, unable not to smile back.

"Brilliant!" He patted her on the shoulders, opening and closing his arms, "let's really get out of here, though, it's quite dangerous right now." He moved to again interface with the levers and buttons.

"What's the plan now?" River asked.

"First, we'll get you back on Earth so you can find what I prescribed you. At least some good will come from you wasting your time to come to me."

River scoffed in complaint, holding her hips in a snotty manner.

"Your prescription, is it? Don't you think it's unfair of you to ask that of me? Why don't **_you_** get your hands dirty, huh?!" River had started playfully, but at the end, she seemed quite hurt. The Doctor seemed to sense it too, immediately skipping back to River.

"I would, I really would…but I can't," he said, sad, "I'm dealing with this right now, Anna needs me."

"You hypocrite," River stung, angry, but Annabella felt special. She felt safe to see such dedication from the Doctor. In a way, it was the kindest thing she'd ever heard or seen out of anyone.

"I wouldn't even dirty anybody's hands if I could," he said, looking down, "but it really is the only way, River. I'm counting on you. I depend on you. The universe depends…"

He broke off and they stared at each other like lovers with a grudge. Him asking to be forgiven, she not knowing how to do it. They were as if communicating telepathically.

"You know me…" he slowly and passionately stated, "you. Know. Me. I would—"

She moved her hand and touched his lips, looking sweetly at him. "I know, sweetie…I know. I'll…do what you ask. I'll trust you, so you can trust me."

He hugged her, deeply, and it looked more like he was still apologizing rather than giving or seeking comfort. Then he stepped back, smiling happily like nothing ever happened.

He looked at Annabella and raised his eyebrows twice, suggesting excitement was abound, and then moved back to the controls.

"Right then, no time to lose, we have a bleak universe to enlighten, yeah?" he looked back with a giddy smile, and they couldn't help but smile back, exchanging glances as if agreeing there was no way to stay mad at him. To not expect the best outcome of whatever would come next.

"Next stop, Earth."

* * *

 ** _Part End: Thank you for reading, please consider leaving a review if you have the time._**

 _Oh boy! Things are so tense, huh? Next up, plot thickens even more, let's keep it up!_

 _Also don't worry, the story is fully written. I'm doing all updates during this next week to compensate for my away time, and wrapping it up._


	8. Chapter 8 - A Bad Day

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to Doctor Who.**_

 _ **Annabella ©2011-2016 MamaBunyip**_

 _ **Everything else and story line by me but of course they're set in the Dr. Who Universe so I still hold no rights to them.**_

 _ **Story takes place somewhere in the 11th Doctor Era. I hope you enjoy it!**_

 _ **Rating: It's perfectly safe for the whole family, like the show. So don't worry.**_

* * *

 **PART 8: A Bad Day  
**

Their hug seemed like it took forever. There was obviously something going on between them, Annabella was sure of it.

"Good luck, love."

"Stay strong, River…I trust your judgment to see it my way."

River opened her eyes, knowingly, but then saddened again. She looked at Annabella.

"Goodbye, Anna dear. Take care of my Doctor."

"Ha," Annabella nervously chuckled, "it's more the other way around."

River looked sadly, before forcing a smile, "well, take care of each other. Ta ta…" and like that, she walked out.

The Doctor closed the door behind her and then stood with both hands leaned against it. After a few seconds, he lightly head-butted the door.

Annabella was about to ask what was the tension all about but he beat her to it.

"We have two choices, as I see it."

"What are they?"

He was still with his forehead on the door, talking down and back at her.

"We go to the future and take down the Empress. Or we stop the Empress from ever existing, by keeping you from being converted."

"So…fight or run?"

"Not exactly," he said, turning around, "you're carrying most of the Bleak's life within you. And after the beating I gave it, it will last… years, until it runs out of juice. Especially while running that shield of theirs."

She nodded and he turned around to look at her.

"Unfortunately, since time-travel is a factor, we can't just wait it out. It will take until you die for it to be over, and that's no life to live."

"So…I'm the heart?" She asked, to the point. The Doctor scoffed a smile and walked towards her, as she rambled, "I don't just have most of the Bleak's life energy, do I? I **am** like its heart? It needs me to survive."

He grabbed her shoulders and approached his face to her.

"You're too smart for your own good," he poked her nose and then grinned, "we have to take down the empress. She's the Bleak, if we destroy her in a manner that won't allow her to launch her life energy into space again, it'll be the end of it."

"But how will we do it? We've always failed, right?"

"Oh c'mon, now!" He leaped into the controls, "part of the fun's figuring it out!" He started up the ship, which rumbled and trembled as ever. "Next stop, three thousand years from now! We're going to fight an empire."

Annabella looked at the Doctor with a dumbfounded look, he just grinned back. "Exciting, isn't it?" He pulled a lever, and she was pulled towards the controls by the movement of the ship.

"Woohoo, you go girl!"

But as they went, she wondered, if her death could save so many many lives…why didn't the Doctor consider it?

"Doctor," she called out.

"Yes, Anna?"

"If my death can—"

"It can't," the Doctor immediately said, shaking his head. "If you die, that won't kill the empress, because they can also time travel. They can stop me from killing you, stop me from picking you up or even meeting you. And then it's the game all over again. So instead, we stop…'they', and then we go back and stop the Bleak while it's still weak.

"First the future, then the past. That way, we'll end it."

"This time-travelling thing really boggles the mind, Doctor," Annabella complained, massaging her forehead. "Then what about the other alternative, waiting for me to die?"

The Doctor looked confused for a second as if trying to recuperate a memory.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, if me dying doesn't work, then how can my natural death by old age ensure that we escaped?"

"Ah. Yes, that. Good point, I was wrong then, even if you died, that wouldn't help at all, though probably you'd just vanish."

"Vanish?"

"Cease to exist. In place of the version of you that the Empress would go fetch. That's how this all began, remember?"

"But wait…I still don't understand something. Isn't it a paradox for her and me to interact? Doesn't that have, like, repercussions?"

The Doctor looked at her, sort of scared. He then looked a bit sad, as if he didn't want to tell her. But still, he told her, "that's not you," the Doctor blurted out, gesturing frustration.

"Converted is just another way of saying transformed, and your meat is just that, meat. They kill you by extinguishing your life energy. Normally that would lead to your mind also expiring, but the Bleak life energy takes the place of yours."

"…the brain is still mine," Annabella repeated, as an explanation to why the Empress knew everything she knew.

"When all's said and done, it's just a data bank." The Doctor stated, looking at the console, "your memory and personality and feelings are still there, but they're now a small part of it, instead of it all. So it's not a paradox because even though on the outside you're the same, the universe can tell you apart. You look the same, but you really aren't."

"Like identical twins," Annabella again added, sitting down on a step. "I think I get it. But still, the Bleak's life energy is inside me, right, so shouldn't we-"

"Part of it," the Doctor corrected. "The Empress represents the Bleak existence in body form. As in all of it, without none of you, so she's still different from you. As far as space-time is concerned at least - I mean, keep in mind I'm just guessing at an explanation that fits.

"Guessing?" Annabella questioned, almost laughing.

"Well, I'll have you know little of the universe's inner workings are really known, Anna, or all that solidly established. Just because you called them Laws, and write about them, doesn't mean they can't be bent and broken based on some loose loopholes."

Annabella chuckled and let silence settle. She couldn't think of anything else to say.

Her head was ringing, trying to wrap itself around the concepts that were being introduced, so she could be of some use. She thought and considered on these ideas, and how she could contribute to thinking about a plan on the larger scale, on beating the time loop in which she became the Empress. She didn't really keep track of the passage of time.

"We're arriving," the Doctor commented,

Upon landing, the Doctor took the lead as soon as they reached the door to exit the Tardis. He opened the door, looked around, and upon not seeing anything, he waved Anna to follow him. But before they left, he closed the door again and looked to the side in thought.

"Doc—"

"Anna," he looked at her, "no matter what happens in there, no matter who says what or what happens to who,, you need to remember this. Is not. Your fault. You're a brilliant, just a brilliant young lady, so you also know what's at stake here. Please," he urged her, "never undervalue yourself again. And whatever happens in there, know that I did my best."

"I know that," she nodded, and it was her smiling for once, "I trust you, Doctor."

He giggled, nervously, looking aside. He looked back at her and bowed to touch her forehead with his. He sighed and stayed there for what was a very awkward minute. She really wasn't used to such physical intimacies. "Thank you, Anna. Thank you."

He turned and opened the door, exiting. She followed, yet a bit dumbfounded at what that had been about.

The door closed behind them.

"Shouldn't we be carrying weapons?"

"No no," the Doctor answered, "I don't do weapons. Besides, none would do the trick. We're going to take over this ship."

She thought for a second. Weapons wouldn't work because they need to keep the Empress from sending away her life energy again. But taking over the ship would…? She looked around, checking out the corridor they were in.

"This is their Mothership, isn't it?"

He looked back at her, impressed. She had only seen corridors, but they all looked the same and, more particularly, like the ones inside the structure inside the shield. His look gave her courage to venture further on her own guessing work.

"The shield: it's not switched on, is it? They switch off so they can launch their campaign. You want to turn it on, and then kill her."

He actually stopped walking and glared at Annabella very proudly.

"You **_are_** pretty brilliant. Exactly, yes and indeed! The shield will keep her life energy from escaping so she's keeping it off because, well, she already has an entire army to protect her, so it's better to be able to escape than to try and keep her enemies out. Especially when she just has the one," he grinned proudly.

"So we turn on the shield, and then what? How do we find her? How do we take her down?"

The Doctor shrugged and shook his head, giggling. "It's a process, Anna, let's take it by steps."

They moved carefully. This time, they knew where to go, but there were a lot more guards. The Doctor was forced to take down three, while they managed to avoid all the others. Annabella's heart was racing, her skin increasingly sweaty, not only from the physical effort but from the emotional pressure of running around trying to maintain stealth.

They were perpetually just inches off a bleak's view.

After a few minutes running around, the voice of the Empress sounded in the intercom.

"My children…this. Is our age!" Her voice was being carried, she imagined, echoed and repeated all over the ship. "When both the universe and fate will darken, and turn bleak."

She heard mechanical yells, surging from the corridors, and her heart skipped a beat. The Doctor grabbed her hand and looked at her with a warning gaze.

"Just don't stop. Come on." He kept going, while she talked.

"While they all wait and worry about the silence that will fall, we will rise from the light!"

Yelling surged out, and as they crossed an intersection, Annabella witnessed one of the Bleaks. He was standing still, looking at the ceiling.

"We will conquer! We will spread! We will convert until all is naught but a manifested bleak existence! Which will not! Fall! To **_silence_**!"

More yelling sounded out as they approached the entrance to the room they had infiltrated in the past. It felt like she had been there not half an hour beforehand. Time-travel was crazy.

The Doctor's grip tightened and Annabella could feel it was warm, not to mention sweaty as well, which made her feel better about her own state of concern. He was equally worried, though more focused. He looked back, afraid someone was noticing them from behind and she saw him lick his lips in thought.

"Many will defy us. But none shall stop us. Not even the legendary **_Doctor_**."

They turned and looked inside the room, to see three Bleaks, who stood with their backs turned to the door. In front of them stood the Empress, hands over the same panel the Doctor had hacked in the past, and thus also with her back turned to them.

The Doctor let out air to relieve tension, and stepped into view, allowing Annabella to also approach and look inside.

"Who has fallen into our hands, to deliver to us our hope, and with it, his life," the Empress turned around, leaving one hand on the panel, and knowingly and victoriously smiled at their leaning gazes, adding "just as it has always been..."

The bleaks turned around, and they both opened their eyes in fright.

"Get them."

The Doctor side-stepped, pushing Annabella to do the same. Two of the bleaks broke through the walls, on each side of the door, crashing against the wall that came after, and one did the same, but through the door entrance.

The Doctor pointed his screwdriver and made it beep thrice, catching and downing the bleaks one by one, as they pushed themselves off and turned to face them. The last one fell forward just before he managed to make the leap.

All the while, the Doctor had his arm stretched out to protect Annabella, and carefully stepped backward as the flowing dress of the Empress came into view.

She turned and faced them.

"I have bleaks covering your Tardis," she told him, suggestively walking towards him, "bleaks covering this entire section," she approached, getting closer and closer, until she was right on top of him. "You're trapped, and your only way out is to take me down right here, right now…"

She looked him in the eye, daring him to make a move. Or about to kiss him, it was a bit hard to tell, in all honesty.

He looked back, challenging and persisting, arm still raised in front of Annabella.

"So…what do you say to that... ** _Doctor_**?"

* * *

 ** _Part End: Thank you for reading, please consider leaving a review if you have the time._**

 _Oh boy! Things are so tense, huh? Next up, plot thickens even more, let's keep it up!_

 _Also don't worry, the story is fully written. I'm doing all updates during this next week to compensate for my away time, and wrapping it up._


	9. Chapter 9 - False Expectations

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to Doctor Who.**_

 _ **Annabella ©2011-2016 MamaBunyip**_

 _ **Everything else and story line by me but of course they're set in the Dr. Who Universe so I still hold no rights to them.**_

 _ **Story takes place somewhere in the 11th Doctor Era. I hope you enjoy it!**_

 _ **Rating: It's perfectly safe for the whole family, like the show. So don't worry.**_

* * *

 **PART 9: False Expectations**

"So…what do you say to that… ** _Doctor_**?"

She said it so close to his face that he winced back an inch, afraid they'd otherwise kiss.

He then blinked, and smirked, chuckling a bit nervously.

"Blimey," he rose his hands, and Annabella's with his, "this has been just one of those really bad days…" he commented in an impressed tone. "I can't seem to win."

"No, you don't," she opened her hand in a requesting gesture. The Doctor glared at it, then went "oh," and put the sonic screwdriver in her hand. She closed her hand around it and nodded. "Smart choice, Doctor."

The crushing sound of bleaks walking emerged from behind them. Annabella glanced to see four of them already on the approach.

"Doctor?" Annabella questioned, incapable of believing it.

"Now now, dear, don't worry, I promise it won't hurt…" the Empress lightly pushed, to shove the Doctor aside.

But he struggled.

"Move aside, prisoner."

"I…" The Doctor was visibly strugling with himself, "I can't…"

"You've been beaten. Concede."

He bowed down his head, clenched his fists, "I SAID I CAN'T!" He suddenly jerked to grab at the Empress. But she again proved him to be no match. She caught his hand and twisted it until he screamed.

"Aaagh!"

She bit her lip in frustration, driving the Doctor to the ground.

"STOP IT!" Annabella moved to gra her arm and pull, but the Empress jerked back her arm, backhanding her well away, and then descended it again to punch the Doctor.

A moment later, Annabella felt herself being picked up. In a dream-like state, she saw the feet of a bleak beneath her, and struggling to look up, and behind her, she saw a bleak carrying the Doctor in both arms.

A tear ran down her cheek as her consciousness dissipated.

She woke up in a room, lying down and in chains. The Doctor was standing, with his hands shackled, grasped inside the hand of a bleak.

"Finally, you're awake."

Annabella looked towards the voice to spot the Empress. She looked around and saw they were surrounded by Bleaks.

"This room will transport you back to when you evolve into who you're meant to be," the Empress told Annabella, waving her hands to present herself, "but before you go, I wanted you to witness what you're truly capable of."

She waved towards the Doctor with a vicious smile, and the bleak squeezed, making the Doctor scream.

"Aaagh!"

"No!" Annabella reacted, trying to move. But she couldn't.

"Doctor!"

"The Doctor!" The Empress echoed, in spite and wonder, approaching him. "The whole universe is up in a twist about you, aren't they? A warrior, they say, destroyer of species and races. A killer of worlds and armies: immortal and undefeatable."

The Doctor clearly didn't like any of that. He shook his head as if trying to deny it, but in fact knowing it was true.

"Killing you is the perfect way to start our campaign. It will send the perfect message…" she flicked his nose, and then turned around and opened her arms.

"WE KILLED THE DOCTOR!" The bleaks roared to accentuate the meaning of the sentence. "Imagine what we will do to you…"

She turned around again, this time facing Annabella with a proud smirk. "How's that for a slogan?"

"Please…please, I didn't do anything. We didn't do anything, stop this and let us go."

"No," the Doctor's voice called out, "they had their chance, Anna. A great big number of chances…I can't provide any more."

"What?" The Empress turned towards him, flabbergasted. "Are you still going on about **_your_** victory?! Doctor, I win, I beat you, I-"

The Empress was interrupted when a bleak suddenly vanished.

"What the-"

"Annabella!" Doctor called out, interrupting her.

Anna looked back at the Doctor, startled while holding back desperate tears. The Doctor looked her right in the eye with the saddest look she had seen on him. It seemed like the look he'd give her if he had decided to kill her.

"I'm sorry."

"What-"

And then she vanished. She never felt anything. Her vision just dimmed and shut off, as her body ceased to exist.

* * *

 ** _Part End: Thank you for reading, please consider leaving a review if you have the time._**

 _Oh boy! Dun dun! No one ever expects the Doctor to get real. But did he really? Check the final chapters to find out :)_

 _Also don't worry, the story is fully written. I'm doing all updates during this week to compensate for my away time, and wrapping it up. Ending coming tomorrow._


	10. Chapter 10 - Lesser of Two Evils

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to Doctor Who.**_

 _ **Annabella ©2011-2016 MamaBunyip**_

 _ **Everything else and story line by me but of course they're set in the Dr. Who Universe so I still hold no rights to them.**_

 _ **Story takes place somewhere in the 11th Doctor Era. I hope you enjoy it!**_

 _ **Rating: It's perfectly safe for the whole family, like the show. So don't worry.**_

* * *

 **Part 10: Lesser of Two Evils**

The Empress opened her eyes wide, and marched towards the Doctor with fury in her eyes. "WHAT DID YOU DO?!"

The Bleak holding the Doctor vanished, allowing him to fall down. She grabbed hold of his collar and lifted him up to his feet, so she could look him in the eye.

"WHAT DID YOU DO, DOCTOR?!"

"What…what you least expected me to," he answered in a dramatic tone. The future Annabella opened her eyes, realizing it at the same speed as he was saying the words. "I killed her."

She threw him aside in a fit, watching more and more Bleaks vanishing. "No, you didn't." Then the whole room started trembling. "You didn't!"

She turned towards him, he was getting up again.

"How? I've been tracking you, she's been with you all this time, so HOW?!"

"My wife…"

She glared back at him.

"No! You sent her to fetch Captain Jack. You wanted them to rig this place to explode while you distracted me, my guards would have captured them and run them off."

"No," the Doctor replied, wobbling to get up, "may she forgive me, I sent her to kill Annabella."

"I-i…idiot. I'll just go back and-"

"She made it a fixed event," the Doctor added as if he could not believe it himself, "she went back to when I first saved her from you and killed her. There is nothing you can do without causing time to self-destruct, even more so because you are about to die as well. Without Annabella, you don't have a body. Without her, your consciousness runs out of life energy around 2020.

"It is… taking longer, but this is the end for all you bleaks. You brought destruction upon your entire race." He sounded so unbelievably sad.

The Empress coughed, the rest of the bleaks vanished, holding their hands towards her for help. The Doctor, meanwhile, approached her.

"You…you would sink that low? You killed Annabella, an innocent! You don't do that! That is how I win!"

"You should've listened to what they said about the Doctor," he told her, "and expected worse. Out of me."

"I…you…you're supposed to…save everyone."

"Else," the Doctor added, grabbing both her hands with his shackled ones, and approaching his face to hers. "When that's all I can do, that's all I do. I save everyone else." He squeezed his grasp apologetically. Desperately. "If-if there's anything left of Annabella in there…I'm really sorry I could not…do more."

She frowned an expression filled with hate and rage, no longer composed. She had been defeated, and to make matters worse, he was apologizing. Like he didn't even mean to, like he didn't do his best to beat her, he had fought her completely on his back-foot.

"YOU GO FU-"

She vanished.

The Doctor's sonic screwdriver fell to the ground, with his whole surroundings still rumbling. He picked it up in a moment of melancholic contemplation, but the crumbling wouldn't let him even take a moment pause.

He got moving, opening the shackles with his screwdriver.

He crossed the corridors at a run. Luckily, the Empress had taken him to a room he knew, so he could trace his way back to the Tardis. The corridors started shining in an attempt to hold strong against the universe's will to erase them, and then eventually, they began giving away, allowing space to replace them.

The Doctor saw the Tardis, and all around it was disappearing, phasing out of existence. "No no no, come on you!" He pointed the screwdriver to enable and expand the Tardis's shield.

It worked just in time. He leaped for the Tardis just as everything around him disappeared, giving way to the vacuum of space. By the time he grabbed the handle of the police box, it and he were all he could see.

"Uff…that was close." He opened the Tardis and went inside.

Closing the door, he sighed, finally taking that moment of pause. Taking it all in. He had been, yet again, unable to protect a friend. Again, he had been forced to pick between evils. To choose the lesser one. Himself.

But this time, it had been worse. As much as the decision had been his to make, and as always, he had made it, another person had had to execute it. If he tried, he would have been stopped, it had to be a move that both unpredictable and secret.

He felt horrible for making River go through that, and was not looking forward to meeting her, because of it.

But still, as always, he approached the controls and put the Tardis on the path of return. He was going to do what he had to. Above all things, that attitude had always defined who the Doctor was. He never shied away from what he had to do when the time came to do it.

* * *

 ** _Part End: Thank you for reading, please consider leaving a review if you have the time._**

 _Done and done! Epilogue's all that's missing out. If you're asking yourself "wat, did this actually happen?!" then read on!_


	11. Epilogue

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to Doctor Who.**_

 _ **Annabella ©2011-2016 MamaBunyip**_

 _ **Everything else and story line by me but of course they're set in the Dr. Who Universe so I still hold no rights to them.**_

 _ **Story takes place somewhere in the 11th Doctor Era. I hope you enjoy it!**_

 _ **Rating: It's perfectly safe for the whole family, like the show. So don't worry.**_

* * *

 **EPILOGUE  
**

A blue police box materialized in an alleyway in Ayr, Scotland. The date was 1977. The Doctor waited for a few minutes to hear a knock on the door.

He approached the door with a gloomy and jaded face. Upon reaching it, he breathed in, to ready himself. Then he opened the door.

"River I,"

"Excuse me, darling," River unceremoniously pushed past him, carrying something on both her arms. He didn't catch what it was, however. He closed the door in mild confusion and trailed after her.

"River? What is that?"

"What? You don't recognize her?" River turned around, and the Doctor had to look straight at it, realizing River had placed a perception filter on it. He recognized the nice year old Annabella, deep in sleep.

"Wha—what? Is that Annabella?!"

"Annabella Christie, imbued with the life-energy of the Bleak planet," River said, proudly, "sound asleep and covered by a perception filter. Proud of me?" She grinned, teasing.

"Proud o'?!" The Doctor had lost his words, "but she died. It's a fixed event, how did you fake a-" He opened his eyes, shocked at the brilliance of it in the exact moment he realized it. He was about to ask a question he had recently found an answer for. She had most likely used the very same trick he had used to cheat his own fixed death. "But how did you arrange for the replacement?"

"Oh, I always keep close those who try to kill me. And I marry those who don't," she winked.

The Doctor looked down at Annabella again, she was sleeping like the peaceful little angel that she looked to be, with her creamy white skin. Sleeping, safe and sound.

He looked up at River with a wide and amazing grin.

"Brilliant! Absolutely fantastic, River!" he opened his arms in celebration, "I could kiss you!"

"Why don't you?"

He did.

He carefully hugged her and they embraced Annabella at the same time as they exchanged the affection.

"This is amazing," he pulled a bit back, feeling little Annabella's hair, "all that's left is to travel 20 years into the future, wait for the Bleak's shield to go down, and destroy it."

"We can send her back, then?"

"No," the Doctor replied, "she can't inhabit planet Earth during this time period. She's supposed to be dead, that's what her parents and, more importantly, the Bleak believe. Right?"

"We could fake a coma," River suggested.

"You know that's not enough. She can't live on Earth in this timeline for that matter. Which does leave the question…what do we do with her?"

"Well…" River shrugs, lightly suggesting, "seeing as how we put her in this situation, we should maybe consider taking responsability?"

The Doctor was confused. She glared at him suggestively and that odd psychic link between them informed himof what she meant.

Parenting.

The Doctor opened his eyes in her direction, awkwardly. "Uh…"

"Not forever, of course. And we'll never tell her we're her parents or anything, but we did this to her, we can't just abandon her somewhere in Earth's future like this. We should raise her until she's of age, and then give her a choice," River proposed.

"Adoption, then?" The Doctor pointed out. River smiled, replying "yes."

"But…I'm always in danger," he awkwardly pointed out, backing away, "I hardly manage to keep my friends alive, how will I manage a little kid?"

"Who says she has to accompany you like they do?" River questioned, approaching him while slowly spinning around, "she has the Tardis, the best home anyone can wish for, really, and the safest.

"Apart from when it's being blown up…" the Doctor pointed out, but River ignored that point, stopping to face him.

"It's not that she'll never leave, but you know what I mean. It's just she's too old to just leave with some family on a completely different world, and wiping her mind would do more harm than good. **_And_** she's also too young to make a life of her own."

The Doctor paused, and looked at young Annabella. He approached River again.

"And she **_is_** quite the brilliant girl," he remarked, "you know she actually kept up with all my explanations? The Empress herself: her abilities were simply an extension of Annabellas'."

"Well then?" River asked. "After all, on a more selfish note, it would be good to spend some quality time together. We've been married a while now, and we've yet to spend a consecutive day together."

The Doctor scratched his chin, considering it.

"Perfect training for when we decide to have some of our own?" She suggestively pointed out.

The Doctor goofily giggled, blushing. "I suppose that's a commitment we can do," he agreed, making River smile really wide.

"Yeah?"

"Absolutely." They both looked down at Annabella with fondness in their eyes. The Doctor then looked at River, caressing her hair. "I wonder if she'll turn out alright," the Doctor asked.

"Whatever she turns out to be, darling," River assured him, "it will undoubtedly be amazing…and totally human."

He nodded, now really comfortable with the idea of having a family.

His mouth spread into his excited grin.

"This is going to be a whole new adventure."

* * *

 ** _Part End: Thank you for reading, please consider leaving a review if you have the time._**

 _And there we go. Thank you a lot for reading, I really hope you enjoyed it._

 _Take care and see you on the next tale :)_


End file.
